Title: Words Mean Nothing 12/12 Conclusion.

Author: quew

Please see previous sections for disclaimers, archiving and classification info.

Rating: R.

Warnings: Angst.

Notes: There's some techo-babble in this instalment, but as i'm not very good at it I've tried to keep it short and simple(ish). I basically made it up as I went along, so I apologise if it's all wrong. The end is nigh! I hope you enjoy it :)

#

The first thing she became aware of was someone holding her hand and talking to her softly. She couldn't pick out separate words, but the tone was soothing and she soon drifted off to sleep again. The next time she awoke, the voice was still there, and she was aware of another hand stroking her face softly. She wanted to smile, but couldn't remember how she did that, and so settled for lying still and having this attention focused on her. She slowly became able to pick out various words…it seemed that whoever was speaking was recounting ships business to her.

She was pulled back to unconsciousness, feeling comforted by the fact that someone was looking out for her.

Then, the dreams began. It seemed the closer she came to normal sleep instead of plain unconsciousness, the more they'd attack her, a fast barrage of images and sounds.

Fire chased her as she ran through an abandoned police station; bullets tore her apart as she tried to rescue Seven from the burning armoury; voices cried out for mercy as she shot them in the darkness, sneaking from kill to kill with the merciless efficiency of a professional.

She awoke with a start, her eyes flying open and immediately complaining about the brightness of the lights above her. She heard someone screaming, and became aware that it was herself, her vocal chords straining in her dry throat.

Someone tried to hold her down and she started to panic, feebly fighting both her attacker and her disorientation.

'Please, B'Elanna!' A male voice cried out.

/Michael? No…/

Instead of fighting against the warm grip, B'Elanna threw her arms around Harry Kim's neck, pulling him close and taking comfort in his gentle embrace.

It took a while for her heart rate to calm down, and when it did she pulled back, holding Harry at arm's length and looking at him. It felt so good to see him again, she didn't know how to express it. She could see the tears forming in his eyes as a grin made it's way onto his face, and he lunged forward, hugging her once more.

'Careful, Mr. Kim!' A familiar voice snapped. <BR>
Harry let go of B'Elanna like a half-Klingon hot potato, backing off so fast he caught the back of his knees on the bio bed next to hers and sat down with a solid thump.

The Doctor moved forward, giving Mr. Kim a disdainful glance before smiling at B'Elanna with genuine warmth.

'I'm glad you're back, B'Elanna,' He said. It was clear he wanted to embrace the engineer, but mindful of her past injuries he settled for a large grin and a pat on her arm, helping her to sit up on the narrow bio-bed.

'So am I,' B'Elanna mumbled, her mind racing. She was back! They'd found a way! But, what had happened to…

Just then, the doors to sickbay whooshed open and a whirlwind of red and black entered. Throwing protocol out the airlock, Janeway ran forward and embraced B'Elanna so tightly that the hybrid felt like her eyes were popping out of her skull.

'Captain!' The Doctor admonished, prying them apart and them fussing over his prize patient.

'I'm sorry, Doctor,' she said, regaining her composure but unable to wipe the grin from her face. 'How are you, B'Elanna?' She asked, sitting on the edge of B'Elanna's bed and placing a delicate hand over one of the engineers. Without even meaning to, B'Elanna tested the weight and size of the captains hand against what she remembered from the previous night. She came to the conclusion that it wasn't the same hand.

'I'm…okay, Captain,' she said finally, feeling more and more like her old self. 'A little stiff.'

'Well, that's to be expected. I don't know what happened to you down there, but when we got you back, you were in a...bad way,' Kathryn said.

The Doctor nodded. 'You've been in surgery twice, and have been unconscious for nearly two days.'

B'Elanna's eyebrows rose, but one look at Harry's youthful face confirmed it. 'We thought…' He began, but couldn't finish the sentence.

'That I might not make it?' She said. He nodded, looking a little upset. 'You don't know me very well at all, do you Starfleet?' She jibbed. 'If I went through all that just to get home, do you think I'd give up once I got here?'

He shook his head, his happiness at her recovery apparent in his expression. 'No, Maquis, I don't. And I'm damn glad, too.'

'Captain…' B'Elanna said after grinning at Harry. 'How /did/ you get me back?'

'In it's simplest terms, we followed your trail. The minute she realised what was going on, Seven used the transporter controls to isolate your signal and track it for as long as she could. She found it wasn't just travelling through subspace, but it was also becoming a temporal signal too. She had to make adjustments to the controls every ten seconds to allow the transporters to continue to track you through time and space. Thankfully, she managed to track you until you stopped, and then we reversed the process, pulling your signal back through all those layers of subspace.'

'That's why it hurt so much the first few times,' B'Elanna said. 'You didn't have enough power to pull me all the way back in one go.'

Janeway nodded. 'Charlotte was having a pretty rough time of it too.'

B'Elanna opened her mouth to say something else and then her eyes opened wide. 'Charlotte?!'

'You're alter-ego,' Janeway clarified. 'She came here when you went there.'

'I…I know who she is, but I had no idea she was here!' B'Elanna gasped. It did make sense, kind of a cosmic see-saw.

'Oh yes. She was…disorientated when she arrived, and she had one hell of a temper,' Janeway smiled fondly at her chief engineer. 'She recognised most of us immediately, and when we'd explained the situation to her, she told us of our alter egos. She and Seven became quite close, I think.'

Seven…B'Elanna suddenly remembered the conversation she'd had with Anna that day on their picnic, and her stomach began to fill with butterflies. 'I'd like to be discharged, ma'am,' she said.

Janeway frowned slightly. 'I don't know about that, lieutenant,' she said. 'I'll have to consult the doctor.'

With a final pat on the hand, Janeway left to talk to the doctor in his office, leaving B'Elanna alone with her thoughts.

Seven…the engineer sighed. What did she really feel for the ex Borg drone? Had all their animosity over the years simply been a smoke screen for her attraction to the tall, blonde woman? If B'Elanna really thought about it, thought about it more deeply than she'd ever let herself before, she realised she knew the answer, and she wasn't sure if she liked it or not.

#

Two hours later, B'Elanna was relaxing in her quarters. The doctor had discharged her - reluctantly - but she was under strict instructions to get lots of sleep and report daily for check-ups. She was about to follow his advice and go to bed when her door opened, revealing a slightly dishevelled Tom Paris. She immediately entertained the idea of changing her lock codes but dismissed it guiltily when his eyes lit up.

'I'm so sorry I didn't come down to sickbay…I visited you while you were unconscious, but I was on duty when you woke,' he said, entering quickly and hugging her.

It occurred to her that Harry and the Captain had been on duty when they'd come to visit her, and tried to hide a small frown when he pulled back.

'I thought I'd lost you,' he whispered, leaning in for a kiss.

She was as surprised as he was when she turned away at the last second, his lips hitting her cheek with a wet smack.

'What is it?' He asked, his brow creasing.

'I…I'm sorry, Tom…I'm so tired,' she mumbled, sounding unconvincing even to her own ears.

His face fell he took on the air of a hurt little boy, pouting slightly. 'Okay.'

'It's…it's not you, Tom,' she said. 'I'm just very disorientated, that's all. I need some time.' A part of her looked on, amazed, as the words tumbled out of her mouth. 'Some time to think, some time…alone…'

'Oh, sure,' he said, backing away. 'I'll come back later and we can have dinner or something, maybe a-'

'No,' She stood, her limbs still a little stiff, and raised a hand to stop him speaking. 'I meant…time alone. Single. Just for a little while.'

His look of hurt came back stronger than ever, accompanied this time by a look of incomprehension. 'Lanna…did something happen to you down there? Is that why you're acting this way?'

'You could say that…Tom, please…'

Before she could say anything else, he turned and stormed out of the room. She was so surprised at the haste of his exit, it took a moment to register that he'd left. Sighing, she limped off to the comfort of her bed.

#

The cargo bay was dark, and B'Elanna slowed as she entered. There was no sign of Seven, even though the computer had said this was the ex-drones location.

After a restless night of tossing and turning, B'Elanna had realised the only way she could stop obsessing about what the woman thought of her was to come down here and ask her herself. She moved further into the darkness, keeping an eye out for the other woman.

A small sound caught her attention, like a whispered sigh. She inched further still, and then gasped at what she saw.

Seven of Nine was huddled behind her workstation, staring at a holo-image and sobbing quietly. B'Elanna leaned forward, trying to see what was on the picture Seven was crying over. She managed to see the top of a dark head before she over-balanced, tripping into the workstation. Seven leapt to her feet, clutching the picture to her chest and turning baleful blue eyes onto the lieutenant.

'Don't you have respect for others privacy?' She snapped, and B'Elanna was taken aback by the tone.

'Seven, I'm sorry, I didn't mean…are you okay?'

'I am fine,' Seven said, her words contradicting her appearance as she wiped away her tears.

B'Elanna steeled her jaw and looked Seven straight in the eyes. She'd committed herself to doing this now, and she was going to do it; she knew if she didn't do it now, she'd probably never do it.

'Seven…I was wondering…would you like to go out sometime?'

It was obviously the last thing the blonde had expected to hear. Her eyes widened and a little gasp escaped from her full lips.

B'Elanna dropped her gaze to her shoes, scuffling them awkwardly as she waited for Seven to regain her composure.

'No.'

B'Elanna's head came up quickly, 'No?' She repeated.

'No.' Seven confirmed.

The engineer could almost feel her heart breaking inside her chest, and for a moment she wondered how deep her feelings for Seven went…and why she'd had to find out the hard way.

She nodded, trying to contain her racing emotions, and was halfway to the door when she turned. 'Seven…there's always something between us, when we're together, isn't there?' She asked, looking deep into Seven's cobalt blue eyes. She saw them flicker, and then Seven said, 'Yes,' in a very small voice.

'If you don't mind me asking…why?' She was aware that the question was egotistical and illogical, and she didn't care.

Seven's composure started to crack piece by piece; first, her voice wavered; then her eyes started to tear, but she never lost her eye contact with B'Elanna. Standing straighter even as a small tear escaped and made its way down her cheek, she said, 'I am in a relationship with someone else.'

'Who?' B'Elanna managed.

There was a slight pause before Seven answered. 'Charlotte.'

When it had sunk in, B'Elanna wanted to say 'but she's gone,' or 'but she is me'…but then it occurred to her just how lucky someone Seven loved was. Seven's unwavering loyalty to her lover traversed not only galaxies, but centuries as well. Seven knew full well that Charlotte would not be coming back, and yet she refused to cheapen the experience by giving up on her feelings straight away.

Something in Seven's eyes made B'Elanna realise all this, and she also realised something surprising in herself. She was willing to wait for whenever Seven would be ready. It didn't matter if that was a day, a month or ten years…B'Elanna would wait. She would show Seven the same loyalty that Seven was showing Charlotte, and one day, she hoped, herself.

She looked into Seven's eyes and she could see it all mirrored in the ex-borgs gaze. She nodded and smiled slightly. Her eyes drifted down to Seven's hands, and she suddenly realised who had comforted her that night in sickbay.

'I understand, Seven,' she said, turning back toward the cargo bay's doors. Just as she was about to leave, she heard Seven call:

'Perhaps…perhaps another time, B'Elanna.'

She turned and with a small nod said, 'whenever you're ready, Seven. Whenever you're ready.'

She smiled all the way back to her quarters.

Back in the cargo bay, Seven smiled as she worked.

#

The end.